


Tying Ties

by JunaJam



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, Hogwarts Mystery
Genre: F/F, Female Player Character (Hogwarts Mystery), Female Rowan Khanna, Hufflepuffs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-13 10:49:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16891146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JunaJam/pseuds/JunaJam
Summary: Everyone needs a little help at first, even one of the brightest witches of her age. Jana knows how to tie a tie and Rowan doesn't mind the help at all.





	Tying Ties

**Author's Note:**

> a.k.a. Rowan's tie is always messed up in game and this is my way of fixing it.
> 
> There is a part that jumps ahead, I decided to leave a few characters out because I'm not sure how the canon story goes or I haven't met them in game yet.

The first year, Rowan Khanna was honestly stumped. 

 

“Let’s see, over and under...over and...tuck in here?” Rowan let her hands drop to inspect her handiwork and proceeded to stamp her foot in frustration. After hours of having her dad show her, and the care to draw out specific instructions and even going as far as to keep it tied didn’t work. The rest of Khanna’s uniform was impeccable and ready for class except for the tie. 

 

Bloody, freaking tie.

 

Anxiety started to pool at the bottom of her stomach. She only had a few more allotted minutes to get ready, make her way down to the Great Hall, eat, get to class… she wasn’t going to let her tie stop her now, not on the first day of class. Tugging off her tie, she started again but ended up tangling the knot.

 

Rowan Khanna, future youngest instructor of Hogwarts, threw her tie down and accepted the fact she was going to be bestest by a single knot! A single knot!

 

Humiliation and frustration tore through her and she groaned, sliding her hands down face as her roommate came to check up on her.

 

“Hey, Rowan, taking your time--er, what’s going on?” Jana poked her head in and saw Rowan in the middle of stretching her face out.

 

“I can’t get my stupid tie on for the life of me! I’m going to be thwarted by my bloody tie before I even step into a classroom!” Khanna slumped to the ground.

 

Jana giggled. “You’re being so dramatic, Rowan. Here let me help you.” Han plucked the abused tie off the ground and had her friend sit up. Khanna let herself be directed before realizing that she was being manhandled. Jana kneeled in front of her and was tugging Rowan’s collar up, soft hands brushing against her neck and face. It felt too close, Rowan wanted to push her away but Jana was already deftly weaving the tie into a firm knot. 

 

Too close for Rowan to watch Jana’s hand, she watched her friend’s face, gaze sharp while focused on the task in front of her. Jana was like that, Rowan thought. Aloof overall but if there was a task to be complete, there was...an intensity she didn’t expect to find in a Hufflepuff.

 

_ Then again, I’m a Hufflepuff too. If I want to do well in my classes, Han could help me stay focused.  _

 

“There, done!” Jana smoothed out the tie and left Rowan to tuck it in. She stood and offered a hand to her friend, a soft smile that was a far cry from that concentrated gaze. “Come on, let’s go! I’m starving. 

  
  
  


No matter how hard she tried, no matter what books and demonstrations she went through, Khanna’s knots weren’t good enough and Jana had been more than happy to help her out. Eventually, like most things, Han turned it into a game. Rowan would stumble out of bed and try to tie her own tie and tuck it under her sweater. Jana, being the early riser that she was would always be at in the Common Room or the Great Hall first and try and yank out the tie and see if it was acceptable enough. 

 

Rowan would always act put out, having to retuck her tie herself if it was good enough or have to sit or stand patiently as it was redone for her. She didn’t mind though, Rowan got to stew in Jana’s focused energy for a minute before they started their day. And it wasn’t as if Jana left her feeling humiliated at the end of it. “As future prefect, it’s only normal to help the future Head Girl!”

 

“You want to become a  _ prefect _ ? Wait, you think I’m going to be  _ Head Girl _ ?”

Jana would only roll her eyes.

 

“You’re going to be Head Girl because you’re Rowan Khanna who can’t be stopped from her rise to the top, and I’m going to be prefect because who else is going to watch your back like me?” Rowan would laugh as a warm feeling would spread through her chest.

 

As their friends group increased and they got older, they would tease her from time to time about how she never got the hang of managing her own tie properly, though Penny said that it matched her “messy, bookworm look” and that it was quite cute. That made Rowan blush,  _ the most popular girl in school told me that I look cute! _

 

Rowan also couldn’t deny that she liked the extra attention. She wouldn’t say so publicly but as the years passed, it felt like a constant ritual. Jana didn’t need as much focus to do it, she could easily do it with magic, but it was their ritual. No matter how many friends Jana Han stumbled upon, she would always have time for this. 

 

The anxiety that Rowan felt, bubbling in her gut at the beginning of the day would mellow before it even started. If it was especially bad that day, Jana just knew and would smooth out any wrinkles on Khanna’s robes and say “I got your back, Khanna.”

 

But at some point it started to feel different. The anxious energy in her stomach would mellow out but into something else. Rowan would notice the little brushes against her skin, hypersensitive just like the first time they did this. Except, instead of pushing her friend away, she wanted to pull her in closer. Every tug against her tie and neck filled her with a different energy. Khanna wanted her friend’s touch to linger so she’d leave her Head Girl badge a little askew too. Jana would click her tongue, but with an amused smile fix it. Her hands would be right over Khanna’s heart and the Head Girl wondered if her heartbeat was loud enough to feel, if Jana would just look up, would see just how flushed she’d get just over how close they were.

 

At some point Khanna developed a habit of tugging a hand through her hair over complicated theories, and Jana would plait her hair so it wouldn’t resemble a bird’s nest at the end of the day as she stumbled in to their room, glasses askew, arms full of books. 

 

It was a whole new sensation that Khanna secretly reveled in. She couldn’t see Jana, but instead feel her fingers scrape against her scalp and quickly work. Rowan quickly realized that the back of her neck was sensitive after hiding under her hair for so long. The brush of Jana’s now calloused hands made her spine tingle, made her feel warm inside.

 

Rowan became nervous again over time. Their seventh year, they were closer than ever and Rowan knew that there was something wrong. There was a tension in Jana that she could feel. Fingers stiff, quicker. Han’s face went from focused to pinched. Tying and retying Khanna’s tie, clicking her tongue sharply at mischievous underclassmen.

 

They all felt it. Between N.E.W.T.s, the vaults, curses, and their impending futures, there was less patience, less optimism. But Jana was the worst. Rowan could see the weight on her friend’s shoulder, the others were studying and doing their planning but for Jana, this was it. If she couldn’t pass her tests, her parents would have wasted their energy on another failed child. If she couldn’t protect her underclassmen from curses, she’d be a failure of a prefect. If she didn’t find the last vault now...she’d have no more chances to linger at school and find Joseph.

 

Rowan would find her friend sitting in front of the fireplace in the Hufflepuff common room, still in her school robes from the previous day, not having slept. Jana just staring at the dying embers, 

Sighing when Khanna sat next to her. Quietly, Khanna reached out and fixed the loosened tie, spelled away the wrinkles on her robes, and tried to wipe the dark circles from her friend’s face. 

  
  


Rowan doesn’t say anything, she knows better than to offer empty comfort so she just leans them in close, holds her hands, rubbing slow circles. Breathing patterns. Ben had taught her, in order to combat their...worse thoughts. Jana’s breathing slows and evens, but Rowan keeps rubbing circles, staring at their hands and nothing else. She feels the prefect lean in closer, their foreheads touching. Rowan stares at their hands, trying not to let the circles stutter with her heart. 

 

_ Even breaths, even breathing, in...out… _

 

One night, Jana reached up to fix the collar of Rowan’s sleep shirt and, automatically, Rowan caught her hand and held it to her chest. They both gasped, Rowan from not knowing why she did that and Jana from surprise. The beat of Khanna’s heart is strong but quick. It’s grounding, but the meaning of the gesture is not lost on either of them. 

 

Khanna tried to pull back, ready to apologize but Jana holds her steady. She wants to know if it’s just Rowan being nervous or an honest mistake on either side so Jana makes the first move, raising her other hand to hold Rowan’s face. 

 

_ So beautiful _ , Jana thinks. Her friend had grown up into her angular face, she looked so elegant, her face was hard to look at sometimes. After the start of their fifth year, Jana couldn’t look at her friend’s face while tying her tie. Their faces were too close, Rowan just a little taller. Gave Jana butterflies just knowing Rowan was watching her. 

 

Rowan shuddered, finally under Jana’s sharp gaze.

 

“Is this okay?” Jana’s whisper is loud in the empty common room.

 

Instead of answering verbally, Rowan just leans in, afraid that she’ll lose her nerve. A bit too quick, their noses bump and teeth click. She jumps back, embarrassed with her poor attempt but Jana is quietly giggling. Rowan joins in after a bit and cups Jana’s face and properly kisses her. It’s new and exciting and the nervous energy in Rowan’s stomach spreads to her chest. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


A spring wedding.

 

It was a perfect decision after Rowan had sheepishly mentioned Khanna farms as a possible venue.

 

“I mean...I’m not sure if you’d want that. It’s - I know it’s not the most ideal.”

 

Jana was quiet for a second before bursting into tears. Rowan, understandably panicked. 

 

They clung onto each other and Rowan waited patiently despite the disappointment and shame swirling in her chest. Jana suddenly gripped Khanna’s shirt tight and between sobs told her fiancé that that would make her happier than anything. 

 

After they had calmed down, Jana admitted she had wanted to ask. “I love the farm, it’s so beautiful and it means so much to you. But I wasn’t sure if your parents would have liked that. They seemed pretty...disappointed when we told them about the engagement.” The Khanna’s made it clear that they tolerated Han. They respected her intelligence and tenacity but had disapproved of the fact that Rowan seemed to be dragged into her hunt for the Cursed Vaults. Secretly believing that  _ that  _ was the fact that Rowan wasn’t on track to be hired to be a professor at Hogwarts the moment she had completed her training.

 

But Rowan shook her head, bringing her fiancé in close for a kiss, chasing away their worries.

 

* * *

  
  


The beautiful wedding.

 

The ceremony was in a grove in the middle of the trees that had magically sprouted once decorations and seats were being set up, as if they wanted to take part in the ceremony. Many of their friends were there. Tonks had arrived in style, as per usual, with a member of the Order in tow. Penny came with  _ just a friend _ but Andre and Rachel had been unable to make it. There was much instability in the Ministry and the overall magical community. They’d promised to watch from a distance. Barnaby brought a bowtruckle as a gift and as a project, it had been kept as a pet that was isolated and lonely, and required a community of others to be rehabilitated. Not all of the Weasley’s had all made it, but Bill arrived had brought a beautiful date from France, and Charlie had come alone, under the threat that if he brought a dragon as his date to the middle of a  _ tree farm _ , he’d be quickly escorted and banned from any further events. Molly and Arthur, as well as Percy came to offer congratulations but left early and the youngest siblings stayed home after, what they had heard from Bill and Charlie, had been a taxing year on all of them. 

 

Family was the hardest to welcome. Jana’s parents looked a mix of proud and sad, not all of their family was together to celebrate. Rowan’s family took in their sadness and helped them rejoice in the occasion, Rowan’s mother taking Jana’s parents and touring the Han’s around the farm before the ceremony. Jana had always loved coming to the farm over the summer holidays. The trees offered a solace and seemed to help with melancholy. 

  
  


When the time came, everyone came together and seated themselves. Rowan’s father performed the ceremony as petals drifted down around them.

 

Rowan tied string around their hands with confidence.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not gonna lie, I hadn't planned on that last half, it just appeared as I was trying to edit some stuff.


End file.
